To the Women-How do you know about slavery and be a muslim?

safiya58

Junior Member
Hi the searcher,

no we are not mad at you, well at least i´m not. it is ok when you have questions and doubts... you will find answers and also comprehension inshaallah. but don´t call us liers... we are not! I hope this will help you to understand, it is a tafsir of the hadith you have mentioned:


Malik said that a man who bought a slave-girl on condition that he did not sell her, give her away, or do something of that nature, was not to have intercourse with her. That was because he was not permitted to sell her or to give her away, so if he did not own that from her, he did not have complete ownership of her because an exception had been made concerning her by the hand of someone else. If that sort of condition entered into it, it was a messy situation, and the sale was not recommended.

http://msapubli.com/hadiths/malik/031_mmt.html


and yes the husband has rights over the wife. if he wants to have intercourse with his wife she should not refuse... but don´t forget that there are also rights the wife has over her husbund....
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
by the way that hadith is in sahih al-bukhari, and now i have a serious question:

do you truly think that this woman will accept a master to have sex with her because he has been away from his wife for a long time then be sold to another master. no that is ridiculus, no woman I know would ever agree to that, and i don't think many women on earth would agree to that, now remember, this woman's brother, husband, father, son, father in law, son in law, grandfather, etc etc are all killed, so would you really accept to have sex with the person who did that to you? no
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
Maybe he can't rape her like force her to do it by force, but many scholars agree that you can force a wife to do it, but lets take the most liberal position, a slave woman or a wife is sinning against her master or husband if she refuses intercource with him, see i get it with the wife, this is because she is ur wife and she gave the concent to marry you so you both have rights over the other in some aspects, but thats not the case with a slave woman.
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
kayleigh - be honest with me, do you think that a woman who's entire male side of her family is killed will agree to have sex with the ones who killed them, even if she agreed that they are guilty then she will take time, and be like "I need time to mourm my family and i can't just have sex with you right after you killed every male close to me"

please kayleigh be honest with yourself

and no im not calling anyone a liar, its just maybe you guys don't know about it
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
Hello!

If i may ask one quick question, where are you getting these hadiths from? Are you getting them from a website, they seem very violence and those are not in bukhari. Something has been changed, and added.
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
Ibn Hazm (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Both slave women and free women are enjoined not to refuse the master or husband if he calls them for intercourse, so long as the woman who is called is not menstruating or sick and likely to be harmed by intercourse, or observing an obligatory fast. If she refuses with no excuse then she is cursed. End quote from al-Muhalla (10/40).

there is nothing to be mad about when you just beleive in lies but will do our best to show you the truth friend.

One mistake that i can pinpoint that can help you see one of the things that are un-islamic is never would you see in any where in the qur'an or hadiths that are used "master" for anyone or anything other than GOD almighty. Men and women are equal. those hadith are been changed by hypcrites and filthy ignorants that want to spread lies about ISLAM.
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
Are you claiming that there is no authentic hadith that has the word master to refer to a human being and those hadiths that i have quoted are not from sahih al bukhari?

anyways this is where i am getting the ahadith from

www.searchtruth.com

and then i go to hadith search and i type in words and the hadith collection i want to use,

so i searched slave, master, concubine, bla bla bla and looked through every single one of them and i learned a lot, then i found out if they are sahih or not, then i looked at their tafseer and thats how i did it, now there are other books like musnad ahmad ibn hanbal and al-tirmidhi and al-nasa'i which i have not had a hold of, i have read some of the arabic, but its very difficult to search through it like this search engine. And now i'm trying to just read all the arabic and maybe find something else

other info i got about slaves were from here:
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1808&CATE=134
and also
islamqa.com
islamqa is now down so you have to wait for some time
 

mymohsin

Pls mak Duwa 4 me
Maybe he can't rape her like force her to do it by force, but many scholars agree that you can force a wife to do it, but lets take the most liberal position, a slave woman or a wife is sinning against her master or husband if she refuses intercource with him, see i get it with the wife, this is because she is ur wife and she gave the concent to marry you so you both have rights over the other in some aspects, but thats not the case with a slave woman.


Salamalaykum Brothers/Sisters,


Masha Allah its glad to c that u now atleast that rape or that thing is not there in Islam.

As above my brothers and sisters said you, if you want to learn about Islam or you have doubt about Islam learn from its source that is Quran and Sunnah.

Yeah its a sign for wife if dont responce to her husband's call without any proper resion. Its like husband have some right on wife and wife also have some right on husband. Like if wife is working and she is earning some money husband should not ask money from that and husband has to take care of all house hold stuff.

No one is mad here we are replying you the way u asking as you have seen many brothers and sisters have spended there time to answer and clear your doubt ask anything with open mind with a mind to learn then insah Allah we will try to help you as much as we can insah Allah.

May Allah guide all of us to stright path and safe us from hell fire. Ameen.
 

zbhotto

Banned
Dare to read it.

You cannot pickup hadiths from here and there and come to a conclussion. You have to know all hadtihs related to the similar events/subjects. If you find contradiction then you have to catagorize the hadiths based on the level of importance of the action you are going to do, and the main purpose of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in one incidnet said 'Womans are cursed if they visit the graves". Actually womans in that time visit the graves of the Myrterd Musims and cry mourn intensely. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) saw it a form of objection to ALLAH (SWT) about what has been ordianed to them. So Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) forbids the woman to visit the graves.

Now in another occation Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was passing by a grave where a muslim woman was crying in Her little son's grave. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came to her and try to console her. She became very rude to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and said how can you realize my pain, it was not your son, get lost...

So Prophet Muhammd (PBUH) left her and latter that woman came to know that it was Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Then She came to Him and appologise about her behaviour. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) replied, ''Patience comes at the first strike of calamity,''

Note Prophet Muhammad did not aske the woman to leave the grave when she was crying in her son's grave.


In another incident Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) at late night was visiting the gaves of his companions and his wife Aysha (RA) followed her secretly. When prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was praying for his myrtered companions he noticed someone was beside him. After finishing the prayer He returned and saw aysha (RA) and he didnot say her anything.

Now you can see, three different hadiths for the subject of visiting the graveyard for woman. Now if one ask you a question is it permissible to visit the graveyard for the woman? How would you answer.

So far I understood from your posting I guess you would pick up any one hadith and give a fatwa. Fatwa is not that easy.....

The correct Judgement is...

1. If visiting graveyard is a wazib woman has to visit the Graveyard.

2. If visiting graveyard is voluntary woman should not visit graveyard. Because in such case she is violating one of the command of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which is a sin.


3. Most correct opinion is woman should visit graveyard but not very frequent.

Similary regarding to slavery, you have to look at the purpose of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and then judge His Hadith. His purpose was to elliminate slavery. I belive if you are sincere you would not deny it.

He (SAW) had married a war captive widowed woman who was older than him. Not only that He (SAW) had also married a wife of a slave man. Why He (SAW) would have done so? His purporse was to encourage his companions to marry everyone from every sect, every color, every race, poor, rich, younger, older, slave, master whatsover.

Do you president (BUSH) marry the divorced wife of a slave black man to encourage white man to marry the slaves to ellimate slavery? Do your Gospel encourgae to elliminate slavery?

Free your heart from Shaitan. You will see the beauty.
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
Are you claiming that there is no authentic hadith that has the word master to refer to a human being and those hadiths that i have quoted are not from sahih al bukhari?

anyways this is where i am getting the ahadith from

www.searchtruth.com

and then i go to hadith search and i type in words and the hadith collection i want to use,

so i searched slave, master, concubine, bla bla bla and looked through every single one of them and i learned a lot, then i found out if they are sahih or not, then i looked at their tafseer and thats how i did it, now there are other books like musnad ahmad ibn hanbal and al-tirmidhi and al-nasa'i which i have not had a hold of, i have read some of the arabic, but its very difficult to search through it like this search engine. And now i'm trying to just read all the arabic and maybe find something else

other info i got about slaves were from here:
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.asp?HD=1&ID=1808&CATE=134
and also
islamqa.com
islamqa is now down so you have to wait for some time


So your point is that you got all of the hadith you were mentioning in the website you gave me? So do you mind telling the titles coz i want to read and search from the website you gave me. Also do you mind to show where they used "Master" for human bieng?

And do chech out these videos if you don't mind:

[yt]aZrBYyMeJ34[/yt]

[yt]KE4yNwyooMM&feature[/yt]
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
Well men and women aren't the same and aren't to be treated equally, but they are to be treated fairly, and if you want i can give u by message a long list of ahadith in bukhari, muslim, abu dawood and malik that contain the word master while not referring to Allahu Subhanahu wa taalah
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
Well men and women aren't the same and aren't to be treated equally, but they are to be treated fairly, and if you want i can give u by message a long list of ahadith in bukhari, muslim, abu dawood and malik that contain the word master while not referring to Allahu Subhanahu wa taalah


Well you don't have to give me a long list, just one and one that is has been translated by muslims not " Arab hypocrites". these days the hypocrites have increased in number. And by the way men and women in islam are treadted fairly.
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported that a man came to Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and said: I have a slave-girl who is our servant and she carries water for us and I have intercourse with her, but I do not want her to conceive. He said: Practise 'azl, if you so like, but what is decreed for her will come to her. The person stayed back (for some time) and then came and said: The girl has become pregnant, whereupon he said: I told you what was decreed for her would come to her. (Book #008, Hadith #3383, Sahih Muslim)

Translated by:
Abdul Hamid Siddiqui

Also I have a question,
and if you don't know just tell me its okay,
and if you don't feel like answering its also okay,

I assume u are a woman by ur name Zaynab,
so If you are married and your husband calls you for intercourse, what do you have to do?if you aren't sick or whatever.What MUST you do?
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
Jabir (Allah be pleased with him) reported that a man came to Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) and said: I have a slave-girl who is our servant and she carries water for us and I have intercourse with her, but I do not want her to conceive. He said: Practise 'azl, if you so like, but what is decreed for her will come to her. The person stayed back (for some time) and then came and said: The girl has become pregnant, whereupon he said: I told you what was decreed for her would come to her. (Book #008, Hadith #3383, Sahih Muslim)

Translated by:
Abdul Hamid Siddiqui

Also I have a question,
and if you don't know just tell me its okay,
and if you don't feel like answering its also okay,

I assume u are a woman by ur name Zaynab,
so If you are married and your husband calls you for intercourse, what do you have to do?if you aren't sick or whatever.What MUST you do?



Ok where have you gotten this hadith from (please do give me the link). Do you beleive that a muslims man would have an intercourse with his slave girl, i have heard the hadith but the "intercourse" part have been added. I do have sahih bukhari but it is in Arabic and i'm non-Arabic person. Like i said people are keep changing and adding the wrong staff. by the way i'm not married and i can assure you if i was my muslim husband would have the right to respect me.
 

thesearcher

Junior Member
yes he would have to respect you but he has rights over you in this area, and if you want evidence for this i can give it to you

now think about this, if a wife's consent is not needed for sexual intercourse, and the woman is a free person, then is the consent of a slave, a person in bondage needed for intercourse, no that doesn't make any kind of sense
 

Zaynab123

Subhana Allah!
yes he would have to respect you but he has rights over you in this area, and if you want evidence for this i can give it to you

now think about this, if a wife's consent is not needed for sexual intercourse, and the woman is a free person, then is the consent of a slave, a person in bondage needed for intercourse, no that doesn't make any kind of sense

Please do give me the proof where it say he has the right to control it. And and i asked you to give me the link of hadith that you have given me where th man had intercourse with his salve girl.
 

a_stranger

Junior Member
If one study Islam as a whole and start practising ...then step by step he will have more understanding that this Islam can do no harm to any creature , it is a mercy and light to the whole humanity .....I think that if you open your heart and study with pure intention you will be sure that no Sahabi(companian of the prophet ) can do harm to any creature whether human or animal or plant .....Islam is perfect love and mercy ......so be sure that no body will suffer if the teachings of Islam is followed with sincerity ...... The hadiths should studied as a whole taking care of all the circumstances that was ... I pray that Allah swt guide us all to the truth.
 

safiya58

Junior Member
kayleigh - be honest with me, do you think that a woman who's entire male side of her family is killed will agree to have sex with the ones who killed them, even if she agreed that they are guilty then she will take time, and be like "I need time to mourm my family and i can't just have sex with you right after you killed every male close to me"

please kayleigh be honest with yourself

and no im not calling anyone a liar, its just maybe you guys don't know about it


I really don´t like that you cast a slur at the sahaba... you portray them as if they was totally brutal bloodthirsty killers.... and this is just not fair.... this war the sahaba was in was not started by them... against these ppl was started a war in order to exterminate them just bec they said and believed : la illahe ill allah..... they fought for their freedom and for their existence... however back to the topic...

you have asked a question which I can not explain you 100% cuz I´m just a layperson and since I´m a repenter there are so many things i have to learn... but imagine you are a teacher of math and I´m your student and you try to explain to about algorithm... and I just can not understand... does it mean there is a wrong in math and it have to be forged new or is there a "wrong" in my comprehension....? now I will show you the answer to your question by a muslim scholar ( may Allah reward him for his efforts) and the choice is yours....
QUESTION: What is the Islamic law with regard to slave-women? Was It permissible to have relations with these slave-women without a formal marriage ceremony?

ANSWER: Firstly, it should be borne in mind that slavery was not something that was introduced by Islam; on the contrary, it was something that had its roots planted long before the advent of Islam. It would not be an exaggeration to state that slavery is probably as old as war itself, because it is one of the consequences of war. Thus, slavery apparently first reared its head with the first wars that took place an the face of earth. War is a factor that makes soft men stern, kind men harsh and delicate men rugged. A man who cannot bear to see the sight of blood under normal circumstances becomes capable of shedding the blood of hundreds under the pressure of war. Those who were not killed in warfare, used to be taken as prisoners of war. The pages of history will show that many alternative, expedient methods were used through the ages to deal with prisoners of war. Some used to be executed while others would be set free, with or without a ransom. Then, there were others who were neither executed nor set free. These were enslaved.

When Islam came and prospered, its power was challenged by the enemies of Islam and the need to go to war arose. By that time, slavery had virtually become an international custom. It was also rife among the Arabs from the days of darkness and ignorance. Thus, abolishing it instantateously would have caused chaos and pandemonium among the Arab people. Hence, a process of gradual extirpation had to be implemented. Moreover, if the Muslims would set all their enemy-prisoners free and tolerate their fellow Muslims being captured and enslaved by the enemies, it would have lead to a sharp decrease in the Muslim military force and given a great advantage to the enemy forces which was something that the Muslims could not afford. Furthermore, it is a well known fact that warfare tactics used by one side are often countered by the opposing side in order to maintain a balance of power. Hence, wartime diplomacy necessitated the enslaving of prisoners.

In the "Jihaads" (Islamic wars) that took place, women were also, at times, taken as prisoners of war by the Muslim warriors. These women captives used to be distributed as part of the booty among the soldiers, after their return to Islamic territory. Each soldier was then entitled to have relations ONLY with the slave girl over which he was given the RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP and NOT with those slave girls that were not in his possession. This RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP was given to him by the "Ameerul-Mu'mineen" (Head of the Islamic state.) Due to this right of ownership, It became lawful for the owner of a slave girl to have intercourse with her.

It may, superficially, appear distasteful to copulate with a woman who is not a man's legal wife, but once Shariat makes something lawful, we have to accept it as lawful, whether it appeals to our taste, or not; and whether we know its underlying wisdom or not. It is necessary for a Muslim to be acquainted with the laws of Shariat, but it is not necessary for him to delve into each law in order to find the underlying wisdom of these laws because knowledge of the wisdom of some of the laws may be beyond his puny comprehension. Allah Ta'ala has said in the Holy Quran: "Wa maa ooteetum min al-ilm illaa qaleelan" which means, more or less, that, "You have been given a very small portion of knowledge". Hence, if a person fails to comprehend the underlying wisdom of any law of Shariat, he cannot regard it as a fault of Shariat (Allah forbid), on the contrary, it is the fault of his own perception and lack of understanding, because no law of Shariat is contradictory to wisdom.

Nevertheless, the wisdom underlying the permission granted by Shariat to copulate with a slave woman is as follows: The LEGAL possession that a Muslim receives over a slave woman from the "Ameerul-Mu'mineen" (the Islamic Head of State) gives him legal credence to have coition with the slave woman in his possession, just as the marriage ceremony gives him legal credence to have coition with his wife. In other words, this LEGAL POSSESSION is, in effect, a SUBSTITUTE of the MARRIAGE CEREMONY. A free woman cannot be 'possessed', bought or sold like other possessions; therefore Shariat instituted a 'marriage ceremony' in which affirmation and consent takes place, which gives a man the right to copulate with her. On the other hand, a slave girl can be possessed and even bought and sold, thus, this right of possession, substituting as a marriage ceremony, entitles the owner to copulate with her. A similar example can be found in the slaughtering of animals; that after a formal slaughtering process, in which the words, "Bismillahi Allahu Akbar" are recited, goats, cows, etc.; become "Halaal" and lawful for consumption, whereas fish becomes "Halaal" merely through 'possession' which substitutes for the slaughtering.

In other words, just as legal possession of a fish that has been fished out of the water, makes it Halaal for human consumption without the initiation of a formal slaughtering process; similarly legal possession of a slave woman made her Halaal for the purpose of coition with her owner without the initiation of a formal marriage ceremony.

In short, permission to have intercourse with a slave woman was not something barbaric or uncivilised; on the contrary, it was almost as good as a marriage ceremony. In fact, possession of a slave woman resembles a marriage ceremony in many ways and both have a lot in common with each other. One similarity is this that just as a free woman cannot have two husbands simultaneously, a slave woman cannot be used for intercourse by two owners. Another similarity is that a free woman whose marriage is on the rocks, cannot marry another man until her previous marriage is nullified through divorce, etc. Due to the discrepancies between husband and wife, the marriage sometimes reaches a stage where it becomes virtually impossible for the couple to live as man and wife with the result that divorce is brought into force to nullify marriage ties. Similarly, if a slave woman was married previously in enemy territory to a non-Muslim, and is then captured alone, i.e. without her husband, it is not permissible for any Muslim to have relations with her until her previous marriage is nullified, and that is done by bringing her to an Islamic country and making her the legal possession of a Muslim. Bringing her into Islamic territory necessitates the rendering of her previous marriage as null and void by Islamic law because with her husband in enemy territory and she in Islamic territory, it becomes virtually impossible for them to meet and live as man and wife. That is why it is not permissible to have intercourse with a woman whose husband is also taken into captivity and put into slavery with her. Another resemblance between the two is that, just as a divorcee has to spend a period called "Iddat" before another man is allowed to marry her, similarly, a slave woman has to spend a period called "Istibraa" before her owner can have coition with her.

Another similarity between marriage and possession of a slave woman is that just as the wife becomes a dependant of the husband and he has to provide a home, food and clothing for her, a slave woman also becomes a dependant of her owner and he has to provide a home, food and clothing for her. Yet another similarity is this that just as marriage makes the close relatives of the wife Haraam upon the husband; i.e. he cannot get married to his wife's mother, grandmother, sister, etc., similarly if a man has copulated with a slave woman the slave woman's close relatives also become Haraam upon the owner. With all these similarities it does not make sense to regard copulation with a slave woman distasteful whilst copulation with one's wife is not regarded as distasteful.

A question that may still arise is that why does the owner of a slave woman not marry her before having relations with her? Well, this is impracticable because of a few intricate technicalities. Firstly, we know that a man has to give "Mahr" (dower-money) to his bride. The Holy Quran says:-

[ A r a b i c ]

Trans: "And allowed unto you is whatsoever is beyond that, so that ye may seek them with your substance (i.e. with your dower-money). " - (4:24).

Thus, "Mahr" is a conditional prerequisite of Nikah. If a man has to marry his slave woman, it would not be possible for him to abide by this condition of 'Mahr' because by Islamic law, a slave does not have rights over any property, i.e. she cannot own anything. In fact, whatever she has with her too, i.e. her clothing, etc., is all regarded as the property of her owner. Therefore, If he gets married to his slave girl and gives her the 'Mahr' she cannot become the owner of it because she has no right of ownership. The 'Mahr' would bounce back to the owner of the slave girl and it would tantamount to giving the 'mahr' to himself. Hence, the owner would become the payer as well as the PAYEE of the 'mahr' which would only result in the mockery of the whole system of 'mahr'. It would be absolutely superflous to have such a marriage ceremony performed that makes a mockery of the 'mahr' system. Hence, the owner cannot get married to her while she remains a slave girl. However, if he sets her free, then he can get married to her on the basis of her having become a liberated woman.

Although the owner himself cannot get married to his slave woman, without giving her freedom, he can get her married to someone else. If he gets her married to someone else, then only her husband can now have intercourse with her and the owner's right of having intercourse with her comes to an end. All these facts prove that the slave girl does not become an instrument of sex; on the contrary, her honour is upheld, in that only one man is allowed to have intercourse with her JUST AS only one man (the husband) is allowed to have intercourse with his lawfully wedded wife.

Islam ensured that the slave girl's duties were not restricted merely to domestic chores but also gave her master permission to copulate with her. This concession created an atmosphere of love and harmony between the slave girl and her master. Islam thereby raised the status of the war captive-maidens close to that of wives. It was a psychological cure to her grief-stricken heart, being deprived of her family and thrown into the hands of a strange society.

Rasulullah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam) enjoined his followers to treat the slaves kindly, gently, and, above all, to regard them as members of the family. In this way, they were made to feel wanted; which was far better than treating them as outcasts and leaving them to wander the streets of a strange society in a peniless, destitute condition. Such treatment would have ultimately forced them to take up evil occupations such as prostitution in the case of slave woman in order to fill their hungry stomachs. The First World War in 1914 was a clear reflection of the evils involved in setting captive women free to roars about in a strange society with strange surroundings. During that war, German and English women prisoners on either side were set free to roam the streets with no-one to feed them. The result was obvious that they resorted to other unrefined and uncivilised methods of income on the streets. Thus, it is evident that the Islamic treatment of women prisoners of war was conducive towards better social relations and led to the refinement of their overall social lives.

Over and above all this, History will show that Islam did not encourage slavery but rather encouraged moves towards the extirpation of slavery. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam has said something to this effect in a Hadith, that: "Whosoever freed a Muslim slave, the Lord would redeem all his limbs - in compensation for each limb of the slave, so much so that the private parts for the private parts - from the Fire of Hell.

"If a slave woman becomes pregnant from her owner, and delivers his child, she automatically gets her freedom after the death of her master whose child she gave birth to.

Moreover, there are many wrongs and sins for which the liberation of a slave serves as a compensation and atonement. This was a further incentive for the extirpation of slavery. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam also taught that whosoever teaches good manners to his slave girl, adorns her with politeness and good education, then frees her and gets married to her, for him there is double recompense and reward. These encouraging teachings served as incentives towards the emancipation of slaves and slaves were liberated by the thousands. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam himself freed 63 slaves, Hazrat Abu Bakr Radhiallahu Anhu freed 63, Hazrat Abdur-Rahman bin Auf Radhiallahu Anhu 30,000; Hazrat Hakim bin Huzam Radhiallahu Anhu 100; Hazrat Abbas Radhiallahu Anhu 70; Hazrat Ayesha Radhiallahu Anha 69; Hazrat Abdullah bin Umar Radhiallahu Anhu 100; Hazrat Uthman Radhiallahu Anhu used to free one slave every Friday and he would say that he would tree any slave who performed his prayers with humility. Hazrat Zul-Kilah Radhiallahu Anhu freed 8,000 slaves in a single day.

Hazrat Umar Radhiallahu Anhu passed certain laws during his Khilafat which led to the emancipation of thousands of slaves, and to the prevention of certain specific forms of slavery. Some of the edicts that he issued:

1. All the apostate tribes that were enslaved during the Khilaafat of Hazrat Abu Bakr Radhiallahu Anhu were to be freed.

2. A Zimmi (protected non-Muslim subject of an Islamic state) should not be enslaved.

3. Arabs will not be enslaved.

4. Those who had been enslaved during the days of ignorance (prior to the advent of Islam) and had lived to witness the Islamic era, should redeem themselves from slavery by paying their costs (their value) to their owners whether they were willing or not.

As a result of all these laws, there came a time when slavery was totally extirpated. But of course, this extirpation came about after a gradual process because that was the only safe and expedient way of tackling the problem.

Because of the prevalence of slavery in the initial stages of Islam the necessity of educating the people about the treatment of slaves also arose. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam taught his followers how the slaves should be treated with kindness, etc. In fact, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam himself possessed slave girls. In this way, he was able to demonstrate practically how kindly and politely the slave should be treated. Because it is relevant to the topic, it would be appropriate to mention here that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam also had four slave girls. One was Hazrat Maria Qibtiyya Radhiallahu Anha who was the mother of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alayhi Wasallam's son, Ibrahim Alayhis Salaam who passed away in infanthood. The others were, Hazrat Rayhaan binte Samoon; Hazrat Nafisa and a fourth, whose name has not been recorded in History.

One question that still remains is whether slavery still legally prevails anywhere in the Islamic world and whether it can be successfully implemented in this age. Well, there is no prevalence of lawful slavery in the Islamic world today and it would be difficult to implement it because of the stringent conditions attached to it. Firstly, the prisoners have to be captured in 'Jihaad' in the true sense of the word. Then again, If true 'Jihaad' did break out somewhere, there are still a number of other laws and conditions to abide by which are far too stringent for any Islamic country in the world to abide by in this time and age when people's personal gains and whims and desire are being given preference to over Islamic Law. According to Islamic Law, captive female prisoners are also part and parcel of the booty. One fifth of the booty has to be first distributed to the needy, orphans, etc. The remaining four-fifths should then be distributed among the soldiers who participated in the war. The distribution can only take effect after the booty is brought into Islamic territory. The Ameerul-Mu'mineen (Head of the Islamic State) remains the guardian of the female prisoners until he allocates them to the soldiers. Only after a soldier has been allotted a slave girl, and made the owner of her, will she become his lawful possession. After she spends a period called 'Istibraa', which is the elapse of one menstrual period, It becomes permissible for her owner to have relations with her. After possession of the slave too there are a number of other laws that affect the master and slave. There is hardly any Islamic country today that can abide to all these conditions, with the result that it is quite difficult to implement slavery in this time and age.

The subject of slavery in Islam is quite comprehensive and there are many laws that pertain to slaves which the Jurisprudents of Islam have outlined. It is, however, hoped that the above mentioned facts will be adequate enough to answer your question.


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